Exit Parallel Mode
 

Genesis 27

27
Chapter 27
Isaac blesses Jacob
1Isaac became old. He could not see anything because his eyes were weak. He called for his older son, Esau. Isaac said, ‘My son.’ Esau replied, ‘Yes, I am here.’ 2Isaac said, ‘I am an old man. I may die very soon. 3Get your bow and your arrows. #27:3 People use bows to shoot arrows. An arrow is like a stick with a sharp point at the end. Go out into the country and kill some wild animals for me. 4Then prepare the food that I like to eat. Bring it to me so that I can eat it. Then I will give you my blessing before I die.’ #27:4 At that time a father gave his blessing to the oldest son. This son had the birthright. Isaac did not know that Esau had sold his birthright. See Genesis 25:31-34.
5Rebekah listened to what Isaac said to Esau. She waited until Esau went out to the country to kill an animal and bring back the meat. 6Then she said to Jacob, ‘I heard your father say this to Esau: 7“Bring me some meat and prepare the food that I like to eat. When I have eaten it, I will give you my blessing. I will bless you in front of the Lord before I die.”  8Now my son, listen carefully and do as I tell you. 9Go out to the animals and bring two goats to me. They must be very good young goats. Then I will prepare some food that your father likes to eat. I will cook the meat in the way that he likes. 10Then take the food to your father. When he has eaten it, he will give you his blessing before he dies.’
11Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, ‘That will be difficult. Hair covers my brother's skin. But my skin does not have any hair. 12My father may touch me. Then he will know that I am deceiving him. He will not bless me. He will curse me instead.’ 13Jacob's mother said, ‘My son, the curse will happen to me, not you. Do what I say. Go and get the things that I told you.’
14Jacob went and he got the goats. He brought them to his mother. She prepared some food in the way that Isaac liked to eat. 15Then Rebekah took some of Esau's best clothes that were in her house. She put them on Jacob, her younger son. 16She covered Jacob's hands with the skin from the goats. She also covered the part of his neck that had no hair. 17Then she gave to Jacob the food that Isaac liked to eat. And she gave him some bread that she had made.
18Jacob went to his father. He said, ‘My father.’ Isaac replied ‘Yes, my son. Who are you, Esau or Jacob?’ 19Jacob said, ‘I am Esau. I am your firstborn son. I have done as you told me. Please sit up. Eat some of the meat from the wild animal that I killed. Then you can bless me.’ 20Isaac asked his son, ‘My son, how did you find it so quickly?’ Jacob replied, ‘The Lord your God helped me find it.’ #27:20 Jacob said ‘the Lord your God’. Jacob did not call God his own God.
21Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near to me so that I can touch you, my son. Then I will know if you really are my son Esau.’
22Jacob went near to his father. Isaac touched him and he said, ‘The voice is Jacob's voice. But the hands are Esau's hands.’ 23Isaac did not know that it was Jacob because he could feel the hair on Jacob's hands. They felt like Esau's hands. So Isaac blessed Jacob.
24Isaac asked again, ‘Are you really my son Esau?’ Jacob replied, ‘I am.’ 25Isaac said, ‘My son, bring me some of your meat. I will eat it. Then I will bless you.’ So Jacob brought the food to him and Isaac ate it. Jacob also brought some wine and Isaac drank it.
26Then Isaac said, ‘Come here my son and kiss me.’ 27So Jacob went to Isaac and kissed him. Isaac smelled the clothes that Jacob wore. Then Isaac blessed him. He said,
‘The smell of my son is like the smell of a field.
It is like a field that the Lord has blessed.
28May God give you rain for your crops,
so that they grow well in the good ground. #27:28 Crops are plants. They can be any plants that people or animals eat.
Then you will have plenty of grain for food.
And you will have grapes to make wine.
29May the people of many nations serve you.
May they respect you as their master.
You will rule over your brothers.
Yes, your mother's sons will bend down to respect you.
May God curse anyone who curses you.
And may he bless anyone who blesses you.’ #27:29 This is what God told Rebekah. See Genesis 25:23.
30When Isaac had blessed Jacob, Jacob left him. Just then, Esau came back from the country where he had killed an animal. 31He prepared nice food that Isaac liked to eat. Then he took the food to his father, Isaac. Esau said, ‘My father, please sit up. Eat some of the meat from the wild animal that I have killed. Then you can bless me.’
32His father Isaac asked, ‘Who are you?’ Esau replied, ‘I am your firstborn son, Esau.’ 33Isaac's body shook very much. He asked, ‘Who was it who killed an animal and brought the meat to me? Just before you came, I ate all of it. And then I blessed him. And God will certainly bless him!’ #27:33 Isaac's body shook. He now realizes what Jacob has done. He knows that he cannot remove his blessing from Jacob. The son that he loves cannot receive the blessing. Isaac knows that God will bless Jacob and not Esau.
34Esau heard what his father had said and he cried aloud. He was very upset. He said, ‘My father, please bless me too!’ 35But Isaac said, ‘Your brother came to me. He deceived me and he took your blessing away from you.’ 36Esau said, ‘Yes, “Jacob” is the right name for him. He has cheated me twice. First he took my birthright. Now he has taken my blessing as well!’ Then Esau asked his father, ‘You must still have some blessing left for me, don't you?’ #27:36 Jacob means ‘He deceives’. This is what ‘deceives’ means. Jacob says things that are not true. And he does things that are not right.
37Isaac replied, ‘I have made Jacob master over you. All his relatives will become his servants. I have given him crops and wine. So what can I still do to bless you, my son?’ #27:37 Isaac was saying that there is now no blessing for Esau.
38Esau said, ‘My father, you surely have one blessing left for me. Please bless me too!’ Then Esau wept loudly.
39Isaac replied,
‘You will not live in a place where the ground gives good food.
You will not have rain to make your crops grow.
40You will have to fight to get the things that you need.
You will serve your brother as your master.
But when you choose to turn against him,
you will become free from his power over you.’ #27:40 This was the only blessing that Isaac could give Esau. He could not take back the blessing that he gave to Jacob.
41Because Isaac had blessed Jacob, Esau hated his younger brother Jacob. Esau said quietly, ‘My father will die soon. When we have buried his body, I will kill my brother.’ 42Someone told Rebekah what her older son, Esau, had said. So she told her younger son, Jacob, to come to her. She said to him, ‘Your brother Esau wants to kill you, because of what you did to him. 43Now my son, do what I tell you. Quickly go away from here. Go to my brother Laban who lives in Haran. 44Live with him for a time. Stay there until your brother is not angry with you any longer. 45He may forget what you did to him. Then I will send a message to you, so that you can come back from Haran. I do not want to lose both of my sons in one day.’ #27:45 Rebekah thought that Esau and Jacob would kill each other. Or she thought that, if Esau killed Jacob, other people would have to kill Esau.
46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I do not like living in the same place as Esau's wives. It makes me very upset, because they are Hittites. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women who live in this land, I will be very sad. I would rather die!’ #27:46 Rebekah wanted Isaac to send Jacob away to find a wife. He would send Jacob to go to his relatives. Rebekah wanted that to happen so that Esau would not be able to kill Jacob. Jacob stayed in Haran for 20 years. Rebekah did not see Jacob again.

Genesis 27

27
1When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son, and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” 2He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 3Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me, 4and prepare for me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat; that I may bless you before I die.”
5 # Gen 12.3; Num 24.9. Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, 6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, 7‘Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food, that I may eat it, and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ 8Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you. 9Go to the flock, and fetch me two good kids, that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he loves; 10and you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” 11But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” 13His mother said to him, “Upon me be your curse, my son; only obey my word, and go, fetch them to me.” 14So he went and took them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savory food, such as his father loved. 15Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son; 16and the skins of the kids she put upon his hands and upon the smooth part of his neck; 17and she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
18So he went in to his father, and said, “My father”; and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?” 19Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your first-born. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that you may bless me.” 20But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” 21Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him. 24He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” 25Then he said, “Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you.” So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. 26Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” 27So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said,
“See, the smell of my son
is as the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed!
28May God give you of the dew of heaven,
and of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and wine.
29Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be every one who curses you,
and blessed be every one who blesses you!”
30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me.” 32His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your first-born, Esau.” 33Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all#27.33 Cn: Heb of all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and he shall be blessed.” 34When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” 35But he said, “Your brother came with guile, and he has taken away your blessing.” 36Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” 37Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” 38Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39Then Isaac his father answered him:
“Behold, away from#27.39 Or of the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be,
and away from#27.39 Or of the dew of heaven on high.
40By your sword you shall live,
and you shall serve your brother;
but when you break loose
you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
41Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself by planning to kill you. 43Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran, 44and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away; 45until your brother's anger turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send, and fetch you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”
46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”